Today (12th April 2021), I ran my fastest 10k since a one-off race in 1997. When I started running again back in 2019, I started keeping records to track my progression, so my ‘personal bests’ refer to the period 2019 to today.
Here is a chart to show the progression of my 10k personal best over the last few years. Rapid progress in 2019 followed by a bit of a plateau through 2020 and into 2021, and then today a big improvement.
Here is a chart to show my top 20 fastest 10k runs. 13 of the top 20 are from the first 3 1/2 months of 2021, and 17 of the top 20 were in the last 5 months.
Here is the route map and elevation of today’s new PB of 50 minutes and 59 seconds. With a flat course, sub-50 minutes would have been within reach.
And, finally, here is a chart to show my average heart rate during each minute of the 10k PB run. Apparently my heart rate quite closely matched the elevation changes of the course run indicating that I am relaxing instead of pushing during the steeper downhills. Definitely already some room for improvement even on this somewhat hilly course.
